That's some fun stuff, Jo; I love the look of water droplets, and how sharp the reflections/refractions in 'em can look. I recently got a macro lens and I've been playing around with it, gotta get the results online and share...

And now for something completely different...a few weddings! The first series of shots is from the wedding I shot in April and the last set is from my sister's wedding last weekend. I was NOT the main photographer for my sister's wedding, which allowed me to have a bunch of fun...but I did have my camera with me for parts...

Welch wrote:Wow.... is that last picture with the lightning enhanced at all? If not then just............

Jobodaho, any chance I could burrow you on July 23rd in Fairbanks/North Pole Alaska for my wedding ? If thats even a possiblity, send me a PM with what you would need/require.

The lightning shot was VERY difficult to get...so many things fighting against me (almost no light on the balcony, slow shutter speed, high ISO, no tripod as I was there to have fun, and moving subjects) and I was so happy when this image showed up as it was the only one that the stars aligned to produce a usable image. When editing the image I wanted to find a way to really highlight the "glow" behind them, and after many attempts I settled on a split toned black and white image that uses a warmed tint to the highlights and a cool tint to the low lights. Other than the tinting of the image it was pretty much "as shot" outside of some exposure correction and added vignetting.

I really do wish I could meet you in Alaska, that would be so awesome, but unfortunately my July is slammed right now with both my real job and weddings...but the offer is a huge compliment and much appreciated!!!

When my grandmother began to seriously slow down, and then finally passed away, my grandfather didn't have time or energy to keep her spectacular flower gardens going. He has, however, kept up the irises:

All shot on the Canon 7D with the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM at f/3.5. I tried a few shots with the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM as well, but this set turned out better.

I have been quite busy with a lot of things...including photography. I can't quite post images from my first big photography commission yet as I am currently still in the process of taking the pictures, but I can however post some images from my recent business trip to New Mexico where I was able to slip out to the White Sands National Monument.

@jobodaho: you could sell those dune shots to a poster company, the lighting is absolutely perfect.

And now for something completely different: Bantam Hens! Was in Corvallis, Oregon and surrounding areas over the weekend of the 12th for my sister's graduation, and a family friend who hosted the party afterwards keeps egg chickens. They have been completely tamed by repeated contact with young children bearing bread crumbs and old produce, so the challenge was keeping them far enough away for the Tokina ATX 80-200mm f/2.8 to actually focus. Puh-kawwwk!

Not too happy about the overexposed branches in the fourth frame, but it was too dark under the tree to get the shot without a flash, and my speedlite had been left behind due to luggage limitations.

While the rest of the country is playing inside the E-Z-Bake Oven, the Colorado front range is having two consecutive weeks of unusually heavy monsoon weather. Tuesday night, facing northeast through an 8th-floor office window, using the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 at long exposure times and very high f-stops:

Wednesday evening, another big storm was forming against the sunset and made for some interesting shots of an abandoned sugar beet mill. This time, facing south with the Tokina 12-24mm f/4:

jobodaho wrote:Cool lightning grabs ludi! I have yet to get any this year...time to start seeking them...

I ended up getting my best shots that night at ISO 800 and around f/11-f/15 or so, with 20 second exposures. Seemed to catch the correct balance of lightning flare and cityscape lights without completely blowing out either one. Probably could have stepped down to f/9 and may 15 seconds to better compensate for the window tinting, though.

Interestingly, that shot with the lightning arc following the outer curve of the lens circle had vivid chromatic aberration, and required a fairly strong PP adjustment to kill. First time I've had an obvious CA occurrence in one my images.

ludi wrote:Interestingly, that shot with the lightning arc following the outer curve of the lens circle had vivid chromatic aberration, and required a fairly strong PP adjustment to kill. First time I've had an obvious CA occurrence in one my images.

Well I would say that's also a pretty extreme example of both light to dark contrast AND being at the edge of the frame where CA's are more prevalent.

Edit: Here's another from last night...I was driving home from shooting a wedding during a lightning storm, I probably missed the ideal shooting time by about 10 minutes and when I was finally able to stop I had about 2 minutes to get a shot.